Old collector looking to get back into it

[MercenaryOne]

I collected legos a while back(early to mid 90's) I was cleaning out my shed when I found about a 24 gallon tote filled with legos. And so I decided to do a search on modern legos and landed upon a few websites, one pirate one led me to this site.

Anyways, looking at alot of these diorama style legos I got inspired to build some of my own. But I am seeing alot of these pieces that I have never even seen or heard of before.

So my question is where does someone get just a bunchload of pieces, like the smooth shiney surface ones and the brown and tan colored ones? Most of my pieces or white, blue, yellow, red... Old style legos, some Pirates and Islanders from the mid 90's is the latest I have.

Also any pretty neat guides on where and how to buy or get these pieces? I am not very computer savvy so please bare with me.

Thanks in advance

Matt

[harrysnapperorgans]

There is a website called brinklink.com which is great for bulk parts.

You can select a 'store' or seller close to you, choose which parts you want from their stock, and they will send you an invoice. Otherwise, check store catalogues for Lego sales and buy kits that have parts you need. I'm not sure where you live, but America and Europe have some Pick A Brick stores where you can buy parts in bulk.

And welcome!

[Commodore Hornbricker]

Bricklink is the best. Also on the Lego website they have a pick a brick section with lots of different elements you can order.

[Ras 74]

Welcome to Eurobricks MercenaryOne!

The site already mentioned as Bricklink is the site most fans out there uses.

Here is a direct link to their catalog.

From here you can search for Sets/Parts/Minifigs and much more.

The easiest way to get around is just to lurk around some.

You can go into Sets and find inventory lists of them. Click a piece and you will get all known colours and can continue from there.

It is pretty easy to understand how it works. Payment is done mostley with Paypal (www.paypal.com).

This is a online bank where you add a creditcard to an account. It is perfectley safe to use.

If you have any questions, you just need to ask.

You have somewhat made an introduction of yourself, but we have a place to make introductions.

I hope you will enjoy your stay here.

[brickzone]

If you don't mind having to clean the Lego, and you're not looking for very specific parts (just general new colours and pieces), I'd recommend ebay. Just look out over a week or two for random mixed lots with newer Lego (you can tell usually by whether it is old primary colours, or more interesting newer colours). This can be very cheap, and gets you an interesting mix of bricks to start with. Plus if say you bought 10 kg, it will be a good start for a collection (indeed you might actually be buying someone's old collection). I find sorting it fun too - you never know what you'll find! My best lot so far included an almost-complete King's Castle Siege - great for parts (loads of new bluish grey, dark green plates, new dark bluish grey plates, etc.)

I find bricklink is only good for *specific* parts - you can get certain parts cheaply but if you want a good bulk mix, not so easy as rarer parts are priced more. A mixed ebay lot will be as cheap (or cheaper) than buying a load of plain parts from bricklink, but will undoubtedly included special parts, big and small and all manner of colours and types of bricks, plates, etc. (that is, if you buy what looks like a "collection" with recent colours).

[davee123]

I find bricklink is only good for *specific* parts

Agree. If you're looking to grow your collection, BrickLink is NOT the way to do it. BrickLink prices are maybe $0.05 - $0.25 per piece USD, with some basic stuff being less, and fancier stuff being more (or way more!). If you buy big swaths of it from eBay, however, you'll be paying roughly $5/pound (as I recall that's the going rate?), which translates to about $0.014 per piece. I'd guess about 1/10th the cost of buying from BrickLink or LEGO's online Pick-A-Brick. The same thing goes for buying from yard sales and flea markets. Some parents or teens or what-have-you are just looking to get rid of their old brick, and aren't really out to make top dollar from it, so they just sell boxes chock-full of pieces for relatively small amounts of money.

As stated, the downside is that it's a grab bag of stuff. Some of it's new, some is old, some is clean, some is dirty, and yes, some of it is Megabloks and Matchbox cars and K'Nex that parents don't realize is mixed in with the LEGO. You'll have to do some work to weed out the undesirables. Sometimes you'll get a lot that's amazing, sometimes you'll get junk. But that's why the going rate is so low-- as I recall, BrickLink sellers found that $5/pound was roughly the price to buy at such that they could all but guarantee that they'd make their money back when re-selling it.

Once you've got a big collection, and you start needing very particular things, then BrickLink or Pick-A-Brick is the way to go. They can let you avoid getting the pieces you don't really want, and let you focus on the stuff you really DO want. You've just got to pay the premium.

DaveE

[Ras 74]

Since I got back into LEGO after my "dark age" I only bought non new LEGO at two points.

First time from a SW LEGO collector in the US, almost doubled up my own collection and all pieces was like new.

Second time from a kid in Sweden that practicly got all the sets I had missed in the early years.

The second time I had to replace so many bricks that was worn down.

I never ever more bye second handed bricks anymore. I want new and shiny parts only!

There is so many ways of what you do with your LEGO.

I am one of those that have all my sets in shelfs (basicly SW sets) and take them out to mod them abit and just look at them.

Then there are people who just need loads and loads of bricks because they build like crazy.

Some of us care about the bricks, some don´t.

If you just are into building, and don´t care about the bricks in general,

I suggest that you do like brickzone and davee123 suggests that is good ways to get lots of bricks fast.

@ brickzone:You are more than welcome anytime to help me sort

Now you got plenty of ideas how to do it really

Good luck!

[Big Cam]

I understand where you are coming from, all of my LEGO's are from about 1986-1995.

Otherwise I ws lost until around 2006.

I missed out on all the cool pieces too, and unless you want to buy alot of specific pieces, just buying new sets is the best way to get a random variety of new pieces.

I got heavy into star wars so I have been buying a bunch of those and in the process I've gottena lot of new cool pieces.

[Milan]

I vote for Bricklink!

It helped me to get all the parts I have missed during years of dark-ages!

Also I know what am I going to build in the future, so Bricklink is THE place for me, regarding specialized pieces and availability!

[MercenaryOne]

I want to thank you all for response, sorry it took me so long to reply to your answers, but I seem to have forgotten the link to this site. Then I remembered it was in my email from activation HAHAHAHA! Well it is now a favorite, and so is bricklink.

Couple questions, never used EBAY before either, does this or Paypal cost money besides what the cost of the product is?

And if I use Paypal as a credit card, is there like a premium? Like if I put $20 on it, am I only going to get $18 and paypal pockets $2?

I checked out bricklink, and was looking through the sets they have there... Why so expensive now? I noticed some sets I got for less than $80 are going for like $150+? What gives?

Edited November 19, 2009 by MercenaryOne

[Follows Closely]

I would encourage you to be patient and visit garage sales. There you can pick up a 20 gallon bucket full for $20.

[Big Cam]

I want to thank you all for response, sorry it took me so long to reply to your answers, but I seem to have forgotten the link to this site. Then I remembered it was in my email from activation HAHAHAHA! Well it is now a favorite, and so is bricklink.

Couple questions, never used EBAY before either, does this or Paypal cost money besides what the cost of the product is?

And if I use Paypal as a credit card, is there like a premium? Like if I put $20 on it, am I only going to get $18 and paypal pockets $2?

I checked out bricklink, and was looking through the sets they have there... Why so expensive now? I noticed some sets I got for less than $80 are going for like $150+? What gives?

Ebay and paypal work like this.

Ebay: The seller lists an item and has to pay a small fee for this, if someone (you) buys the item, they get charged another small fee. The good thing for buyers on ebay, is as the buyer, you have no extra fee's to pay. You do need to remember to factor in shipping though, sometimes greedy ebay sellers will increase the price of shipping to cover their fees.

paypal: OK, paypal has got to be the number one way to pay for things on the internet and is heavily accepted for ebay and bricklink.

It can get tricky and there are fees. As a buyer, technically you don't loose any money. The seller on the other hand will loose a small percentage if you pay with a credit card. In order to be able to accept credit card payments, you have to be a premium member, whcih basically just says, I agree to the loss of about 1.5% of all my earnings. As a paypal buyer, you do not have to be a premium member and in turn you would only be able to recieve paymnets form other directly froma checking account.

SO, the thing to remember and to look for is the seller jacking up the shipping price to make up for the % lost in paypal fees? Or does the seller specifically say, "if paying with paypal increase your total purchase price by $xx.xx"

It all sounds expensive but there really isn't any FASTER way to do business. Some sellers may accept money orders or checks, but take it fro me, DON'T send anyone money that you can't get back.

Paypal ofers protection in case the seller turns out to be a bad apple and steals your money, plus if you use your credit card through paypal, you are double protected becasue you could also file a claim through your credit card company.

I hope I helped, I know I tend to ramble on.

[davee123]

I checked out bricklink, and was looking through the sets they have there... Why so expensive now? I noticed some sets I got for less than $80 are going for like $150+? What gives?

Collector's market!

Certain sets don't fluctuate much in value; others are TREMENDOUSLY sought after. For example, the original Millenium Falcon sold for $90, but after it was out of stock in toy stores, the BrickLink and eBay prices skyrocketed to the $200-$400 range. Part of that was due to the fact that it was the only set to have a minifig version of Princess Leia, and the figure alone was selling for $30-$90.

Chances are, if you like a particular set, so does everyone else. And then the price goes WAY up. If you're looking to buy a 6433 Coastwatch set (retailed for $30 10 years ago in 1999), it's still about the same price on BrickLink, average being about $48 now. But 4553 Train Wash (which also was $30 in 1999) is selling for about $100 now.

DaveE

[MercenaryOne]

Yes but couldn't you replicate these sets with the pieces you have or get from heaps and stuff on ebay? Then sell for the marketed up price?

I also noticed I found a bunch of my old favs at bricklink like the lion knights, wolfpack, and islanders :)

The figures by themselves are expensive tho, but thanks guys for showing me that site! I feel like a kid again! I am excited to spend my next paycheck on a bunch of legos!

Matt

[davee123]

Yes but couldn't you replicate these sets with the pieces you have or get from heaps and stuff on ebay? Then sell for the marketed up price?

Often not really. Many sets (particularly older ones) have a small handful of rare or unique elements that are hard to come by. While you could get 95% of a complete set with the stuff from eBay, that last 5% is missing, and then you can't charge much, since it's an incomplete set. Note also that in order to make top dollar, you should have the instructions in good condition and also the box (or sell it still sealed in the original for extra value!). So it's not all that easy to re-create older sets and sell them.

The figures by themselves are expensive tho

The minifigs are almost always the most expensive part of a set. Hobbyists often LOVE to have vast quantities of minifigs-- often the "soldier" minifigs (space, pirates, castle, stormtroopers, etc) are very valuable because people want to have dozens or hundreds or even thousands of them. Also, a lot of the more modern figures are quite distinctive and similarly sought after for being collectible. Some of the more valuable ones can be $20 or more per figure!

DaveE